March 1999 Cover Sword
Jose de Braga's Lion Ascend Custom Short Sword

O! For a Muse of fire, that would ascend
The brightest heaven of invention;
A kingdom for a stage, princes to act
And monarchs to behold the swelling scene.
          -Shakespeare, Henry V

Made by legendary artist Jose de Braga, the Lion Ascend short sword makes one breathless. He describes his work on this lovely work of art: "The Lion Ascend here is made of 14k gold, welded over a frame of .925 silver. The thickness of all preciuos metals run from 1 milimeter and up to 3 milimeters for the lion head and some areas. The handle is stabilized jet stone and the blade is ATS-34 with a Rockwell hardness of 60. The design of the blade was inspired from a miniature made by Harry Stalter (a picture of it can be found on page 76 of Knives Illustrated, February 1995). The customer's logo was set in lapis cloisonné at the top-middle of the gold part, which itself was open work filled with a composite of stabilized jet stone, and upfront of it was set a 1/2 inch-long man-made cut and polished ruby. The entire project took about six months to complete."

The Lion Ascend featured here went to the customer for US$20,000. Similar items can cost from $2,500 to even more than $20,000 depending on the materials requested, the complexity of design, and the time required to create the elegant sword.

Jose de Braga is a world reknowned knife maker whose artistry is perhaps best known by his work for the motion picture Highlander III: The Final Dimension for which he carved the ivory-hilted dragon-headed sword of the Highlander, and the demon-headed ebony sword of the adversary entitled "Dark Magic." Jose resides in Quebec, Canada.

e-mail: jdebraga@total.net. His website is here.

Photo by Studio Oeil pour Oeil, Image Layout by WarAngel

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